“Treason” gets tossed around a lot in official Washington, usually as a way to silence critics of a particular administration, individual or even a policy.
An example of the latter comes from the Cato Institute, which has been a long-time critic of the 100-year-old Jones Act. This 1920s vintage law “requires goods shipped between U.S. ports to be transported on ships that are built, owned and operated by United States citizens or permanent residents.” Its intent was to boost the U.S. maritime industry. What it did was create a powerful interest group that owes its current and future existence to defending the law and its provisions against all comers.
Even if that means calling them traitors:
For many months Cato’s Patrick Eddington and Colin Grabow have been collecting internal emails from the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) obtained via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. Unfortunately, responses from MARAD have often been incomplete, with the agency citing various exemptions from the law to justify withholding information. While some exemptions are no doubt legitimate, other, less‐convincing ones pushed us to challenge MARAD’s recalcitrance. After months of appeals, repeated missed deadlines to provide promised information, and threats of legal action on our part, MARAD finally sent the required materials last month.
After reading through what MARAD sent, we now can understand why the agency was so reluctant to comply with the law.
Almost at the end of the 41‐page document is what appears to be a set of recommendations related to a March 2020 meeting of the Marine Transportation System National Advisory Committee (MTSNAC)’s International Shipping Subcommittee. Among them: “Charge all past and present members of the Cato and Mercatus Institutes with treason.”
If that suggestion is supposed to be a joke, it doesn’t even rise to the level of poor taste. It’s idiotic, for sure. But it’s also dangerously cavalier with the idea of treason and the free speech rights of others to criticize government, its agents and its policies.
Perhaps this is the logical end of protectionist measures that have long outlived their alleged mission. The Jones Act has utterly failed at its intended task of fostering a U.S. shipping industry. Instead, it’s gone from old-fashioned rent-seeking to a racket.
With a twist: some inside the racket think opponents are traitors. But not to America. They are traitors to the racket itself. There could not be a stronger argument for repealing the Jones Act now.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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The Jones Act does a lot more than just protect American Shipping Companies. It protects merchant seaman from abusive ship owners and insures that we have a viable shipbuilding industry.
Come on. Going further into the background of your argument would be nice. Most people aren’t aware of the Jones Act or its issues.
Repeal Jones act even effects cruise lines too